ABOUT US

2016

2016 Annual Report

This annual report gives you insight into the most important achievements of Document Our History Now in 2016. Supplementary to this Annual Report, our 2016 Financial Report is available to the public via our website.

The stories

All of the stories that were finalised and posted on our website over the course of 2016 were from Myanmar.

In 2015 we sponsored the Rainbow Reels workshops on documentary filmmaking for young LGBT people. The results of those workshops – the short documentaries Channel G, Dear Mom and Soulmates – formed a significant part of the opening night of the &PROUD Yangon LGBT Film Festival in Myanmar in January 2016. Since then, both the trailers and the full-length documentaries have been posted on our website. All three of these short documentaries were screened in several cities in Myanmar as well as at international film festivals.

During 2014 and 2015 we carried out the Rainbow Agenda Myanmar project in Myanmar, which resulted in an advocacy agenda and the documentary Love and Other Matters. This highly interesting and professionally made documentary by the Yangon Film School was uploaded on our website in 2016. It gives a beautiful impression of LGBT life in Myanmar, in all its diversity.

In 2016 we sponsored the third &PROUD LGBT Photography Competition and Exhibition in Myanmar. The photos received extensive exposure in the press in Myanmar. The prize winners will be presented on our website in 2017.

Cambodia: documentary Iron Legs

With our support, filmmaker Vanna Hem was able to do additional interviewing and filming with the lesbian girls soccer team and their coach in Cambodia. The editing of the documentary will be done in 2017. To support Iron Legs we did a Cinecrowd crowdfunding campaign in the spring of 2016. In addition to that we organised a sponsor dinner in May 2016. Both fundraising activities were successful, giving us the extra budget that we were looking for. We owe special thanks to De Trut, Pann, NZ Sauna, Smashing Pink, ROCK, Elard Diekman, Karin de Bruin and many other individuals. We expect Iron Legs to premiere in Amsterdam in June 2017.

LGBT HIV+ storytelling project

Over the course of 2016 we were able to acquire just enough funding to start the pilot of the LGBT HIV+Digital Library project, which aims to collect personal testimonies of LGBT people who are living with HIV. An interview with each of them will be filmed, covering various aspects of their experience of living with HIV. The pilot will start in Indonesia and Myanmar, where in both countries four LGBT people who are living with HIV will be interviewed and filmed. Their short testimonies will be edited and subtitled and then uploaded on our website in early 2017. This pilot will be used to find more funding to expand the digital library. The library will be used for social media applications and research.

Photography series Indonesia and Pride Photo Award.

In 2016 Indonesian photographer Yoppy Pieter was able to finish his series Over the Black Rainbow, about a group of warias (transwomen) who attend an Islamic school in Yogyakarta. The Erasmus Huis (the Dutch Cultural Centre in Jakarta) showed an interest in organising an exhibition of his photographs. Document Our History Now had contact with the Pride Photo Award organisation about expanding the exhibition to include the 2016 Pride Photo Award collection. That resulted in plans for a six-week exhibition, sponsored by DOHN, the Erasmus Huis and Pride Photo Award, that will be held in early 2017.

Screening afternoon in the OBA in cooperation with IHLIA

The third presentation afternoon we had originally planned to hold at the main branch of the Amsterdam Public Library (OBA) in cooperation with IHLIA in 2016 will be held in June 2017 instead. We only want to show new materials at that event, and we will have a great new documentary to show in June 2017.

Communication: website, Facebook and newsletter

Over the course of 2016 we posted five new productions on our website, adding a few webpages about the makers as well. We also posted news updates on a regular basis.

We added about 15 Facebook posts over the course of 2016. On 1 January 2017, we had 215 followers.

Our mailing list contained over 650 email addresses by the end of 2016. This group of interested people received five newsletters in that year. We sent out a newsletter every time a new production was posted on our website. Private individuals can easily subscribe to or unsubscribe from the newsletter.

Friends and sponsors of Document Our History Now

Over the course of 2016, our sponsors included the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Aids Fonds, the Asia-Pacific Network of People Living with HIV, Fonds De Trut, Foundation Pann, Smashing Pink, NZ Sauna, KopArt reclamebureau and Zielhuis Uitvaart, as well as our private sponsors and volunteers.

In 2016, our coordinator, Robert Witlox, put a substantial amount of time into supporting the organisation, its productions, the communication, and the presentation event, but also into finding sponsors and expanding a relevant network in Southeast Asia. For a small percentage of those hours he received compensation as a freelancer. In addition to that, he carried out the Digital Library and photography exhibition projects, for which DOHN received project grants.

Finding new projects

In 2016, contacts were established with a variety of organisations, professionals and documentary makers in various countries. We took the initiative to bring together documentary makers, photographers, ideas and funds, playing the role of project developer and producer. We also made a serious attempt to work with a second producer in the Iron Legs project, but we could not reach a workable agreement with that person.

Finances

Our revenue in 2016 consisted of sponsoring from private sponsors and companies (approx. EUR 2,500), foundations and associations (approx. EUR 8,000, including the Cinecrowd crowdfunding for Iron Legs) and project subsidies from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Aids Fonds and the Asia Pacific Network for People Living with HIV (approx. EUR 28,000). See also our 2016 Financial Report on our website.

In compliance with our obligations in connection with our “ANBI” tax status, this 2016 Annual Report and our 2016 Financial Report will both be posted on our website.